Over 75 years ago, the World Fair was home to the most innovative ideas of the time. It’s where inventors from around the world brought their ideas about the future to the masses.

The telephone. The electric outlet. The X-Ray machine. Ever heard of them? They all debuted at the World Fair.

These days, however, the inventors have moved elsewhere. Forget the World Fair and start heading over to the Maker Faire. It’s the place to be for modern innovations.

The first Maker Faire took place in San Francisco in 2006. It was run and operated by Make Magazine, but it was the brainchild of technology writer Dale Dougherty, who believed it would become a place where the “maker” in all of us could come out and play.

In fact, Dale believed that everyone has a maker inside of them. The first issue of Make Magazine made that clear when Dale declared his vision:

“More than mere consumers of technology, we are makers, adapting technology to our needs and integrating it into our lives. Some of us are born makers and others, like me, become makers almost without realizing it.”

By 2014, the movement of “maker faires” had spread around the world with over one hundred faires taking place. Across San Francisco, New York, and Rome alone, the movement saw a whopping total of over 280,000 attendees. Today, it’s one of the fastest-growing movements in the world.

Have you ever attended a Maker Faire? What did you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Anonymous

October 8, 2015 at 9:15 pm

We just went to the recent Maker Faire in San Diego. Pretty disappointing - $30 admission fee which was excessive given the number of underwhelming exhibitors/vendors. They would not provide me with a list of exhibitors via email before the event which makes sense now given that they didn't want potential attendees to see the lack of quality vendors or exhibitors ahead of time. It was a mish mash of some decent exhibitors and lots of mediocre exhibitors. Was hoping for a quality event but disappointed and recommend you don't waste your time and money attending other Maker Faires until they improve the quality of the event and provide consumers with more complete and transparent event info before the event.

Ryan Dube is MUO's Programming Editor. Ryan has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering. He's worked 13 years in automation engineering, 5 years in IT, and now is an Apps Engineer. He's spoken at national conferences on Data Visualization and has been featured on national TV and radio.